Why cant people write out what they are saying without using acronyms
Not just here on ebay but in every day life, write out what you are saying rather than using acronyms. I'm old I'm not into most of these acronyms , when I'm reading these posts and I see an acronym I don't know what it means I just go to the next post, like I said its not just here on ebay but in other social media outlets. Its just FA!!!!!!!
66 comments
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoAs one who was raised speaking a non-standard form of English
A puddock sat by the lochan’s brim,
An’ he thocht there was never a puddock like him.
He sat on his hurdies, he waggled his legs,
An’ cockit his heid as he glowered throu’ the seggs.
The bigsy wee cratur’ was feelin’ that prood,
He gapit his mou’ an’ he croakit oot lood:
“Gin ye’d a’ like tae see a richt puddock,†quo’ he,
“Ye’ll never, I’ll sweer, get a better nor me.
powell-collectibles
·1 year agoWhat is FA? Given how I talk, I’d think it is “**bleep** all,†but i don’t think that is what you meant.
pickapaper
·1 year agoOkay, I can't resist. Not acronyms, just cute. From many years ago.
Conversation between a customer and a waitperson in a Swedish restaurant.
F U N E M?
S, V F M.
F U N E X?
S, V F X.
OK. M N X.
Translates to "Have you any ham?" "Yes, we have ham." "Have you any eggs?" "Yes, we have eggs." "OK, ham and eggs."
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoYou just reminded me of a friend that thought LOL was lots of love. It was years before anyone told her...
we were having way too much fun watching responses to that to correct her.
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoHeck, even I say BRB to my dog when I step out of the house. She gets it and she's 12, which is slightly older than I am.
jewelbiz
·1 year agoI started my working life as a NYC college English professor, Hunter College.
And I held that job for many years.
Now I admit that I love â¤ï¸ðŸ™ðŸ’‹Emojis…
Any easy way to communicate is best! You can quote me!
johnrj1226
·1 year agoDo what you want to do - don't think the audience will change to met your wishful request. Life is not fair at any age get used to it. Don't know what you consider as "old" but I'm a '44 model - I learn new stuff from the younger folks - even our 6.8 y.o. grandson and Goggle.
Off subject - Was a sophomore in college in K'zoo, MI when Goldfinger hit the screens.
wri-8727
·1 year agoI remember thinking it was cool to say S.O.L.
susanb1872
·1 year agoHere is one acronym that stumped me when I first saw it in a listing: OOAK. I had to google that one.
chienoir
·1 year agoIt's jargon by alphabet soup. The intent of use can be benign, to effect efficient word economy; or exclusionary, when done as emotional manipulation, when it is merely 'in group' lingo. By now, some acronyms have become so commonplace that they are widely accepted and understood by the mainstream. (Such as 'LOL') Other acronyms are arcane and meant to be understood by a select few, so as to result in the in-group feeling superior or exclusionary. Unfortunately, the goal of the latter might be to make those who are not in their exclusive jargon loop feel ignorant, or out of touch.
mtgraves7984
·1 year ago@jamesbondgoldfinger
When I first came here, I kept a window open just to check the acronyms. Anymore, I have to open one rarely... it gets easier. I once had a poster ask if my moniker was meant to be read like 'empty graves' (and it was)... she'd learned growing up at her dad's welding shop that the acetylene tanks marked 'MT' (in spray paint) meant that they needed refilling... so 'empty'. 😊
toomuchstuffagain35
·1 year agoWhy do people (in the US) write anymore instead of now, which is much shorter and means the same thing?
a_c_green
·1 year agoWell, I cannot eat now, because I just had dinner and I'm full.
If I cannot eat anymore, my future on earth is going to be very short.
mtgraves7984
·1 year ago@toomuchstuffagain35
IDK. I always thought 'anymore' replaced (the longer) 'nowadays'... and 'nowadays' just doesn't roll off my tongue. LOL 😜
iamalwaysright
·1 year ago“I haven’t finished my clam chowder yet. Does anyone have now crackers?†🤔😀
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoI was introduced to a new acronym this morning at a medical appointment.
I needed a Referral from the Doctor. The approving office said along with the Reason For Request to put (BMI).
I am thinking BMI means Body Mass Index and so did the Doctor. However with the approving office, (BMI) is different then BMI with (BMI) meaning Best Medical Interest.
wri-8727
·1 year agoI Skip them too. Why so many
acronyms? Internet geniuses
On the other hand (OTOH); back in the days of railroads & the telegraphs every telegraph operator would know what this meant . . .
6naz fimme q (please fill me in)
Yet, now days the jargon comes and goes so fast it is impossible to keep up with.
iamalwaysright
·1 year agoWords that many don’t know are acronyms:
RADAR
LASER
TASER
ZIP code
SNAFU
CAPTCHA
SCUBA
ASAP
GIF
SONAR
SIM card
I personally don’t mind the acronyms because of the convenience. I’ll either just ask or lookup the ones I don’t know. There’s no way I’m going to type out or say Universal Serial Bus every time instead of USB. Or even when I tell people I’m from Los Angeles rather than the more convenient LA.
toomuchstuffagain35
·1 year agoI've always wondered why it's a ZIP code instead of a postcode or Postal code.
a_c_green
·1 year agoWithout getting too far into the weeds on this topic, I would say that it's derived from what came before it: Postal zones, basically subdividing large geographic areas into zones to simplify locations and sorting. Thus if you lived in Boston your home address would be within some Zone number (e.g. "Boston 3, Mass."). That lasted from World War II into the early 1960s, when they needed more specificity to the Zone system, and thus the Zone Improvement Plan was born, initially using five digits as your "ZIP Code."
meme6253
·1 year agoIt's a shame what has happened to the English language!
pickapaper
·1 year agoOne of the local furniture stores recently put up a huge billboard on the highway and all it said was "IYKYK" in huge letters followed by the name of the store. I knew what the letters meant but my DH didn't and I could only imagine how many people who saw that billboard had no idea. (It's been taken down now.)
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoI love that one.
toysaver
·1 year ago"when I'm reading these posts and I see an acronym I don't know what it means I just go to the next post"
I use google. I may be old but still love learning new things and it only takes a few seconds.
relicpeddler
·1 year agoThe max 80 characters in the description plays a big part in it for sure. Please raise it to 100 eBay or at least 90
reallynicestamps
·1 year ago@relicpeddler
The max 80 characters in the description
Do you mean in the Title? There is a limit there.
I think it is 82 keystrokes, which would include spaces between words (and acronyms).
But Descriptions can be hundreds of words long.
relicpeddler
·1 year agoYes, I'm sorry I meant Item Title
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoCuriously, analog watches are quite popular here with the younger generation, it's old farts like me who use Apple watches, which I find interesting (I don't have an Apple watch, I have an analog thing, but I see this all the time). Maybe they find that big display attractive. IMHO, digital watches are actually kind of dire - you have to r-e-a-d them to get the time, whereas analogs you just glance at it - it's all in spatial recognition and the connection between that and time sense, all in one synapse. My DH will use nothing but digital watches, and he has to decipher analog, and then figure out the actual time, and he's 73 - dire, I say!
policequilts
·1 year agoYah! I finally know that is Dear Husband - I think. 😄
Of course, there are times when seeing DH comes to mind
D a r n Husband
D e a d Human
D e a d Husband
D e a d Horse
Now I gave you new substitutes when reading DH and should give a smile .
I remember when CD's came out and the machine to play them.
Everytime they talk about CD's , I am thinking Certificates of Deposits and then realized that they were talking about those mini albums. 😉 😄
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoMy go to is designated hitter. What can I say? I'm a lifelong baseball fan.
roccotacodad54
·1 year agoAs policequilts pointed out. It's sometimes easier to decipher the acronyms than if they actually try to spell out the word(s).
I have a young relative that in verbal conversation is pleasing to talk to. They sent me a text in what appeared to be some sort of code (at least to me) and was nothing but one long string of acroynms and abbreviated word salad. I texted back to just spell it out. Mistake, even worse...............
I have another young relative that can't tell time on a clock with hands, only from a digial display.
I have no doubt that in the not so far future just grunts and sighs will be considered acceptable forms of communication.
chienoir
·1 year agoAmerican English is full of colloquialisms, slang, dialect and jargon. But now acronyms have been on an accelerated rise for the last several decades.
Now decipher this verbal dialog from decades ago:
"Jeet? Yep. Joo? Nope."]
(Translation:" Did you eat? Yes. Did you? No." )
Updated version: "Wadja have?" "IDK."
LOL!
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoAcronyms are in no way as annoying as people who still use 'u' for 'you' and 'ur' for 'you're' or 'your' - it's 2025 not 2010 - phones have text expansion now and you're not 13 years old.
doc-holmes
·1 year agoI always tried to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation in text messages. I used to be a writer, I can't help it. It was ridiculous to everyone else, though.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoI'm a current writer and my text messages are full of acronyms and crap punctuation, but I do try to make them somewhat comprehensible and to at least spell things correctly. My difficulty is that I'm impatient and mobile phones are actually pretty inefficient when it comes to text input, so I bash away like Zorga the cavewoman.
doc-holmes
·1 year agoThat's why I miss the Blackberry. Typing was so much easier.
doc-holmes
·1 year agoAcronyms are nothing. My kids say stuff like rizz, drip and skibidi. That's the real threat.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoCopacetic , daddy-o. I grok wassup.
gone.c-33
·1 year agoI made the mistake of asking my nephew to explain skibidi to me…
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoWhen I was training as a journalist and later writing for the public service, we were told to write out the acronym the first time we used it, followed by the acronym in parentheses.
For example -- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
YMMV
policequilts
·1 year agoI agree about spelling them out and maybe followed by ( acronym).
I bet a lot of this is because of texting and I am finding if people can write the words, but they cannot spell them correctly.
a_c_green
·1 year agoThat's the way to do it; yes. You spell them out the first time, optionally add the acronym in parentheses at that time, and then you can use the acronym only from that point forward. You save a lot of typing, and everyone knows what you mean. Easy-peasy.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoThat use to be the way to do it and is how I was taught. But reading news articles it is often not done.
titipeo
·1 year agoSomething that hasn’t been mentioned is that back in the early days, but it serves its purpose as well, where beepers where the rage, you only had so much room to send a message, hence abbreviations. LOL DIY SMH
Also for me, with arthritis writing through the phone or using keyboard is a little painful. Shortcuts are key, Urban dictionary works well.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoThat would still apply if you have a phone that charges you for each text message. It is because a text message is composed of so many characters before it is counted as another text message. People would abbreviate a lot to save on the amount of text messages.
Also with contest for the fastest texter, each acronym counts as a word.
bashort
·1 year agoomg idk why.
bonjourami
·1 year agosmh.........
theteamsetguy
·1 year agoLol!!!!!!!
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThe reason they are not written out is because when we answer the same ol question 10,000 times, a few 'short cuts' can't hurt.
Some of the VERY common ones here on the ebay forum are:
MBG (Money Back Guarantee)
SNAD or NAD ("Significantly Not As Described" or just 'Not As Described)
INR (Item Not Received)
Neg (Negative Feedback)
Now you'll know 90% of what is being referenced.
annadryl
·1 year agoI google something I don't recognize from time to time. It only takes a few seconds and then I know something new.
simba6
·1 year agoYou think it's bad here, you should see an FAA weather report.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoI'm a '44 model and ran into acronyms the most of my life once I stared to read things in the newspaper like baseball and football stuff very much. There were acronyms all over those things like RBI,HR TD, FG. Did have goggle to help me - BTW a life long Deeetroit Lions & Tigers fan. Heck the Yield sign of today once read Yield Right of Way and the Red light still mean stop, etc. What does this mean LSMFT? Hint: Was on one of those 3 B & W TV stations we enjoy back in the early '50s..
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoI got liposclerosing myxofibrous tumor and then lucky strike means fine tobacco.
'Mad Men'....love that series.
glorybells
·1 year agoI grew up in the shadows of the space program (My dad was a NASA engineer for 30 years). NASA is king of the acronyms. I got used to VAB, LCC, O&C, LOX, LN2, SRB, LEM, and more. And I still use them, when I’m driving my Uber riders who are going to the VIC (visitors center). If you don’t like acronyms, this would be a terrible place to live! Plus there is a lot of local shorthand in our area. “The island†refers to Merritt Island.
I’m an Uber driver and go literally all over the state. Sometimes, I’ll send a quick text to a friend so someone will know where I am. Such a message might read: @OIA, no pax, trying to get r coming E. Translated: at Orlando Airport, no passenger at the moment, waiting to get a request coming east. I use airport code for whatever airport I’m at, except Orlando. They’re OIA when I’m talking, but their code is MCO. I’ll refer to SFB or MLB for the other airports I work. Anywhere on Disney property or nearby is referred to as the “Disney bubbleâ€.
I don’t mind them at all. They allow me to say things quickly and succinctly , and I’m all about quick and succinct.
simply-the-best-for-you
·1 year ago@glorybells I was so confused at OIA, I'm like that s/b MCO. 10 years of weekly travel. I refer to almost all cities by their airport code. Esp my fave, SUX. And yes, it really does.
glorybells
·1 year agoThat’s because for the first 20+ years, before the current facilities were built, it was known as McCoy Jetport. They didn’t want baggage handlers and air traffic controllers everywhere to have to learn a new code, so they kept using MCO.
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoNASA and I were created in the same year. LOL. A little trivia for you.
stephenmorgan
·1 year agoIn the Air Force, I recall LOX as being Liquid Oxygen. Not sure if it has the same meaning with NASA.
In civilian terms Lox is a dish consisting of a fillet of brined salmon.
theteamsetguy
·1 year agoIn the underwriting world LOX stands for Letter Of Explanation.
glorybells
·1 year agoExactly the same, and LN2 is liquid nitrogen.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoOnly been to NASA in Houston, TX. Lived in Katy, TX and drove by it on our way to Galveston beaucoup times. Once Took our two sons to museum there, my then 13 y.o. son received a signed baseball from Nolan Ryan when he was with the Astros who happen to be there.- it was his birthday and he wanted to go there - I was my sons Uber driver, called Max, when being one wasn't cool. Nolan R. grew up in Alvin, TX near the NASA complex.....Dumb luck happens some times.
PS.: We went to Galveston in the afternoon spend some time on beach. The 13 y.o. want to check out what was new in in young girls bikinis too and have a fresh shrimp dinner at Gaido's.
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoI look up acronyms on my iPhone...I just google them.
Heck...the newer movies on TV use them all the time.
I saw OP used a lot here...had no idea what it meant...'original post'.
I do understand it though.
Whatever happened to people actually writing something?...on paper with a pen
policequilts
·1 year agooh my goodness. I learned something.
I kept using " Other Person" and thought . . . What ? ? ? "
simply-the-best-for-you
·1 year agoCuz I have wrist issues & every few characs I can save, helps. Also, if eBay uses an acronym, I try to use the same ones. Also, IT my whole life, we love acronyms in IT😀
paxilill
·1 year agoI got your six, but check your coms.
I had a friend in the past that loved jargon. I never had the heart to tell him i hated it
ten_o_nine
·1 year agoI'm old I'm not into most of these acronyms
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